Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Visual Studio Tools for SQL Server Compact 4 now available

The “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Tools for SQL Server Compact 4.0 CTP2” (nice shot name) has just been released. It can be installed from the Web Platform Installer 3.0 or directly from here.UPDATED link points to RTM tools.

After installing the SQL Server Compact 4 tools, you now have the same Server Explorer features that you currently have for SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2.

1) Max database size for SQL Server Compact is 4 GB per database file (your application could connect to more files)2) I have not done any testing, you could do your own based on these scripts, provided you have SQlite installed: http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=SpeedComparison

Thanks Erick, I made some tests with SQL CE 4 and SQLite for .NET (http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/).I loaded more than 6 million records under the same conditions with the next results:SQLite: loaded in 2 minutes with final size of 406MBSQLCE4: loaded of 11 minutes and final size of 526MBBest regards.

If I install a SQL Compact 4.0 database on a client machine and then on a website, can the data access technology be the same (regardless of whether my SL app is OOB or in browser) and what common data access technologies will be supported if there are more than one? Thank you.

I must try this EF4 stuff. I hope one day SQL Server Compact will be a true (disconnected) mobile solution in conjunction with SL because I can't see WPF running on slates/tablets - or should I say my expectation is that SL will leapfrog WPF to become a cross Windows (not cross browser) UI. Cheers Erik!

I wonder if I am missing a step. I am running VS2010 Professional. I installed VS2010 SP1 Beta, SQLCE 4.0 CTP2 and VS Tools for SSCE4 in that order). When I go to add a DataSource to my project, I do not see "Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0" (although 3.5 is still there). If I go to Add New Item I can select "SQL Server Compact 4.0 Local Database" but I get an error informing me that this database version is not supported by the project type.

I realize these are all CTP and Beta versions but it seems like I am missing something somewhere. I am running Windows 7 x64 if that is relevant.

I just applied VS2010 SP1 RTM on my PC. I still can't create new SQL CE 4.0 database. Where can I download Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Tools for SQL Server Compact 4.0? When I run Web Platform Installer, it does not show this item.

Hi!!! I have a problem when I try to install this tool, ever appears a messagebox with the text "To run this application, you must first install Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1..." but I already installed the SP1.Help me please!!! I spent a week reinstalling everything :S

These 2 links have installtion troubleshooting advice: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=dda9dc83-f59a-4eca-b792-dd1d9629b6e7 (the readme) and http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlservercompact/archive/2011/03/15/sql-server-compact-4-0-tooling-support-in-visual-studio-2010-sp1-and-visual-web-developer-express-2010-sp1.aspx

There's nothing concrete in any of the links provided that settles this problem. I have the same issue and would please like a detailed walk-through to solving it because a maintainance project just landed on my table and I need this to work. Help need please. Thanks

BTW do you know how I can get tool support in VS 2012 for SQL Server Compact 4 database? I continue to see "SQL Server Compact 3.5 local database" in VS 2012 when I want to add a "Local Database" project item.

I'm using VS 2012 Premium with Update 1. When adding (and you select) a “Local Database” as a project item in the "Add new Item" dialog, in the top right showing a description of the selected item it states “An empty SQL Server Compact 3.5 database for local data”. Perhaps it's a mislabeling in VS 2012...what does your VS 2012 UI show? I'd send a screenshot if I could.

Taiwo: But that link Refers to VS 2010, and you talk about VS 2012 (so far) - for VS 2010 issues, see this link http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlservercompact/archive/2011/03/15/sql-server-compact-4-0-tooling-support-in-visual-studio-2010-sp1-and-visual-web-developer-express-2010-sp1.aspx

I want to give an option in my standalone vb.net datbase program to empty the database (after making backups)all this to avoid reaching them 4gb, they can then start fresh, like after every year or so..Is this the usual workaround for standalone database programs? or is there any other solution?

Hi my name is Daniel. I use SQL Server Compact 3.5 on WindowsMobile 6.1. I have written a Program in VisualBasic 2008. Intelegent Device. There is a WindowsForm with a Button, on press import the file.csv. I will import csv to sdf. In this moment I use StreamReader than I split every Value and set it in a insert query. It works but it is toooo slow. 3000 thousand entrys takes 15 minutes. Can you help me?

I was trying to use SQL Server Compact ToolBox to create a merge replication subscription for SqlCe 4.0, but I only see "Tables" folder in my database, no "Subscriptions" folders as I have seen in some screenshots.

i'm always getting an error saying "an error occurred while retrieving the information from the database: The specified type is not supported by this selector" while trying to create a dataset for a report viewer i'm using your plug in "SQL Server Compact 4.0 (Simple by ErikEJ) (SQL Server Compact 4.0 (Simple by ErikEJ))"